Percutaneous puncture is a common medical procedure that involves accessing an internal organ or tissue through the skin. Image guidance and surgical robots have been increasingly used to assist with percutaneous procedures, but the challenges and benefits of these technologies have not been thoroughly explored. The aims of this systematic review are to furnish an overview of the challenges and benefits of image-guided, surgical robot-assisted percutaneous puncture and to provide evidence on this approach. We searched several electronic databases for studies on image-guided, surgical robot-assisted percutaneous punctures published between January 2018 and December 2022. The final analysis refers to 53 studies in total. The results of this review suggest that image guidance and surgical robots can improve the accuracy and precision of percutaneous procedures, decrease radiation exposure to patients and medical personnel and lower the risk of complications. However, there are many challenges related to the use of these technologies, such as the integration of the robot and operating room, immature robotic perception, and deviation of needle insertion. In conclusion, image-guided, surgical robot-assisted percutaneous puncture offers many potential benefits, but further research is needed to fully understand the challenges and optimize the utilization of these technologies in clinical practice.

In the past 30 years, the incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) has been increasing rapidly and has become one of the most common malignant tumors in females. Currently, the main surgical treatment for DTC is standard open thyroidectomy (SOT) via a traditional Kocher mid-cervical incision, but postoperative neck scarring was associated with significantly worse health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores. To offer better cosmesis, robotic/endoscopic thyroidectomy via cervical, axillary, anterior chest, breast, postauricular, or transoral approaches have been developed over the past 20 years. In general, gasless transaxillary endoscopic thyroidectomy (GTET) has advantages in terms of convenience, clarity of vision, and aesthetic incision. The current work aims to provide a step-by-step description of GTET, supported by a high-quality, pictorial guide.

Background: Invasive micropapillary breast carcinoma (IMPC) is a relatively rare pathological type of invasive breast cancer. Little is currently known on the efficacy and safety of breast-conserving treatment (BCT, lumpectomy plus postsurgical radiation) compared with mastectomy in women diagnosed with early-stage IMPC. Accordingly, we sought to investigate the long-term prognostic differences between BCT and mastectomy in patients with T1-3N0-3M0 invasive micropapillary breast carcinoma using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 1,203 female patients diagnosed with early-stage IMPC between 2004 and 2015 from the SEER database. The impact of different surgical approaches on patient prognosis was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional risk models.Results: A total of 609 and 594 patients underwent mastectomy and BCT, respectively. Compared with patients who underwent a mastectomy, patients in the BCT group were older and had lower tumor diameters, lower rates of lymph nodes metastasis, and higher rates of ER receptor positivity and PR receptor positivity (p < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier plots showed that the overall survival (OS) and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) were higher in the BCT group than in the mastectomy group. In subgroup analysis, patients with T2 stage in the BCT group had better OS than the mastectomy group. Multivariate analysis showed no statistical difference in OS and BCSS for patients in the mastectomy group compared with the BCT group (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.727; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.369–1.432, p = 0.357; HR = 0.762; 95% CI 0.302–1.923, p = 0.565; respectively). During the multivariate analysis and stratifying for the T stage, a better OS was found for patients with T2 stage in the BCT group than the mastectomy group (HR = 0.333, 95% CI: 0.149–0.741, p = 0.007). There was no significant difference in OS for patients with T1 and T3 stages between the BCT and mastectomy groups (p > 0.05).Conclusion: In women with early-stage IMPC, BCT was at least equivalent to mastectomy in terms of survival outcomes. When both procedures are feasible, BCT should be recommended as the standard surgical treatment, especially for patients with T2 disease.

Tumor specific delivery and therapy mediate by integrin 6-target immunoliposomes for 6-siRNA in colon carcinoma

Few cells with stem cell characteristics possess capabilities of self-renewal and differentiation, which leads to high tumorigenesis and resistance to standard chemotherapeutic agents. These cells are mostly quiescent, and arrest occurs at the mitotic G0/G1 phase in mitosis. We explored the effects of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on the MCF-7 cell cycle with CD44+/CD24-. Cancer-initiating cells were propagated as mammospheres. The CD44+/CD24- subpopulation was sorted by a fluorescence activating cell sorter-Vantage flow cytometer. A cell cycle analysis was performed with different bFGF concentrations. Differences in the CD44+/CD24- cell proliferation under different bFGF concentrations were observed (p=0.001). When the bFGF concentration was increased, the proportion of CD44+/CD24- at G0/G1 decreased (p=0.023). We conclude that bFGF may sustain CD44+/CD24- cell proliferation and could promote cell progression through the G0/G1→G2/S phase transition.

Background: Primary breast signet ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) is a rare type of breast cancer with typical morphological characteristics, high aggressiveness, and poor prognosis. SRCC is different from mucinous breast adenocarcinoma (MBC). However, only a few studies have explored the clinicopathological features and prognosis of SRCC and MBC.Methods: Data retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results (SEER) database (2004–2015) were used to explore the prognostic effect of clinicopathological features and treatment modalities on survival outcomes of SRCC and MBC patients. Kaplan–Meier plot analysis, multivariate Cox proportional risk model, propensity score matching (PSM), and subgroup analysis were performed.Results: A total of 167 patients with SRCC and 11,648 patients with MBC were included in the study. SRCC patients exhibited higher histological grade (p < 0.001), larger tumor volume (p < 0.001), higher rate of lymph node metastasis (p < 0.001), and higher frequency of distal metastasis (p < 0.001) compared with MBC patients. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that SRCC patients had lower overall survival (OS) and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) compared with MBC patients. Subgroup survival analysis showed that the SRCC patients had lower OS and BCSS in subgroups including younger than 60 years old, white race, married, without chemotherapy, and received radiotherapy compared with the MBC patients in these subgroups. In addition, the SRCC patients had lower BCSS in subgroups including other races (including Asian or Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native), without surgery, and lymph node metastasis.Conclusion: The findings showed that primary breast SRCC patients have unique clinical characteristics and worse prognosis compared with MBC patients. Notably, different treatment methods resulted in different prognosis for SRCC and MBC types; therefore, SRCC patients should be distinguished from MBC patients to improve efficacy of treatment.